Meeting Esau
Meeting Esau
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Two Camps
As Jacob continued on his way, some of God’s angels encountered him. When he saw them, Jacob cried out, “This is God’s camp!” So he named the place Mahanaim.
Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Seir in Edom. Jacob commanded them, “You must tell my lord Esau his servant Jacob says this: ‘I have been staying with Laban and was detained there until now. I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, and servants. I am sending messengers to inform my lord and seek your favor.’”
When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We found your brother, Esau, and now he is coming to meet you with four hundred men.” This terrified Jacob. In his distress, he divided the people with him and his flocks, herds, and camels into two camps. He thought if Esau attacked one of the camps, the other might escape.
Edited from Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
Having made peace with his uncle Laban, Jacob could continue his journey toward Canaan. But one obstacle to his safe return remained. Twenty years earlier, Jacob fled Canaan to escape the murderous wrath of his brother.1 Returning home meant he would have to face Esau.
As Jacob continued south through the hills of Gilead, he encountered a host of angels. He had seen angels in a dream while leaving Canaan.2 Now on his return to Canaan, he once again saw angels. But these angels did not travel to and from heaven and were not in the promised land. They had encamped on the east side of Jordan, possibly to guard the border.3 To commemorate his camp meeting God’s angelic camp, Jacob named the place Mahanaim (“two camps”). God had protected him in Harran and would continue to protect him on his return.4
Initially this encounter encouraged Jacob, so he sent servants to inform Esau of his return. He worded his message to convey his peaceful intentions. While staying with Laban, he had acquired his own wealth. He had no intention of claiming anything Esau may have gained during his absence. But when his servants returned with the news that Esau had set out to meet Jacob with four hundred men, Jacob panicked.
To his credit, Jacob did not flee in fear as he had in his younger days. He was scared but still determined to obey God’s command to return to Canaan.5 But Jacob did decide to take action to protect his people against a potential attack. Probably inspired by his angelic encounter at Mahanaim, Jacob divided his household into two camps. These two groups would camp apart from each other, allowing one to escape if Esau attacked the other.
Jacob’s Prayer
Then Jacob prayed, “God of my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac, Yahweh, you told me to return to my homeland and promised you would make me prosper. I don’t deserve any of the true faithfulness you’ve shown your servant. I crossed the Jordan with nothing but my staff, but now I’ve become two camps! Please save me from my brother, Esau. I’m afraid he’ll attack me and the mothers with their children. But you promised you would certainly make me prosper and make my offspring like the sand on the seashore, which is too numerous to count.”
Image by Nancy Andrea D from Creation Swap
Jacob returned to Canaan a different man than when he left. Even in fear, he showed no hint of deceit or manipulation in his actions. Instead, he took steps to promote peace, while also protecting his family as best he could. Most importantly, he took his problem directly to God.
Unlike his vow at Bethel, Jacob’s prayer did not rely on any promise to God.6 It relied entirely on the promises God made to him. Jacob left Harran in obedience to God’s command, based on the promises of prosperity and innumerable offspring. But God couldn’t fulfill those promises if Esau killed Jacob, his wives, and his young children. For the first time, Jacob humbly acknowledged he didn’t deserve God’s blessings. But now he needed one more blessing—protection from Esau’s wrath.
Jacob determined to obey God despite the threat that obedience posed to himself and his family. Similarly, Abraham determined to obey God despite the threat obedience posed to his son Isaac, the heir to the promises.7 Jacob had grown to trust God as deeply as his grandfather did. They didn’t base their faith on knowing what would happen in the future. They based it on knowing what God had promised in the past. Both believed God would keep his promises no matter what the future held.
A Gift for Esau
Jacob stayed there that night, and from what he had, he chose a gift for Esau, his brother: two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams, thirty nursing camels with their calves, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys. He set each herd by itself and put his servants in charge of them. Then he told his servants, “Continue on ahead of me, making sure to leave some distance between each herd.”
Then Jacob commanded the first group, “When Esau, my brother, meets you, he’ll ask who you belong to, where you’re going, and who owns the animals. Tell him, ‘They’re a gift from your servant Jacob to my lord Esau. See? He’s coming behind us.’”
He also commanded both the second and third groups and all those following the herds, “In the same way, you must answer Esau when you find him. And don’t forget to say ‘See? Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’”
Jacob thought, “I’ll appease him with the gifts sent ahead of me. When I see him after that, maybe he’ll accept me.” So the gift continued on ahead of him, but Jacob spent the night in the camp.
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That night, Jacob devised a plan to win Esau’s favor. He went through his flocks and herds and selected a kingly gift of 580 animals! He divided the animals into several groups and sent them ahead one group at a time. This would result in Esau encountering the gifts in waves, hopefully calming his anger a little at a time. Jacob also instructed his servants on how to answer questions Esau would likely ask by emphasizing Jacob’s goodwill and desire for a peaceful reunion.
Why did Jacob feel he needed to send this gift? Didn’t he trust God to answer his prayer for protection? While Jacob clearly still felt nervous about meeting Esau, Scripture never equates action with a lack of faith. As long as we don’t disobey him, God expects us to control what we can while trusting him to control what we can’t. In fact, God rebuked both Moses and Joshua for praying without acting.8
Jacob’s plan shows he was as cunning as ever but he was no longer as selfish. Without praying at all, Jacob had used deceit to acquire his father’s blessing.9 And in the process, he left his brother with nothing.10 But this time he wanted to bless Esau and make peace. He genuinely hoped the twin brother he hadn’t seen in twenty years would accept him.
Wrestling with God
That night Jacob took his two wives, their two servants, and his eleven sons across the ford of the Jabbok River. He sent them across, and then he sent across his belongings.
When Jacob was left alone, a man wrestled with him until dawn. When the man realized he wasn’t winning, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Throughout the day, Jacob sent out his gift to Esau one herd at a time. Then he spent a second sleepless night in the camp and decided to take his household across the Jabbok River.11 The text gives no explanation for why Jacob risked fording a river at night. But his restlessness set the stage for arguably the strangest divine encounter in all of Scripture.
Jacob sent his family and then his belongings across as he supervised the crossing from the northern riverbank.12 After his household had safely crossed to the south side of the river, Jacob briefly stood alone on the north side before he also crossed. But in that moment, he was suddenly attacked and found himself wrestling in the dirt with a mysterious assailant. They wrestled until dawn, but neither could gain an advantage. To break the stalemate, the assailant touched Jacob’s hip and dislocated it. The contrast between the gentle touch and the disabling injury exposed the identity of Jacob’s opponent—God himself!13
Though it seems strange that God would struggle to overpower any opponent, he didn’t attack Jacob to prove his strength but to teach Jacob a painful object lesson. The entire encounter symbolized Jacob’s lifelong struggle for Abraham’s blessing, in which he viewed his brother as his rival.14 As Isaac’s firstborn, Esau was Abraham’s natural heir. But Jacob had wrestled the blessing away from him. Jacob rightly desired the blessing, but up until this point, he had used misguided methods to obtain it.
Jacob’s faith had grown in Harran, but before he could reenter Canaan, he needed to learn one final lesson. The blessing he sought didn’t come from his father or grandfather. He didn’t need to contend with Esau for it. Jacob thought he fought against flesh and blood, but he discovered the one he contended with was no enemy at all. He was the God who had blessed Jacob even before his birth.15
Israel
Then [the man] said, “Let me go! It’s dawn!”
But Jacob replied, “No! I will not let you go until you bless me.”
“What’s your name?” the man asked.
“Jacob.”
So the man said, “Your name is not Jacob anymore. Your name is Israel because you have contended with God and humanity, and you have won.”
Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
Not wanting to be seen, Jacob’s assailant told Jacob to let him go before the sun rose. On the holiest occasions, God appears in his glory and cannot safely be seen by sinful humanity.16 On this occasion, Jacob would receive his new name, the name by which his descendants would identify themselves. But Jacob refused to relent. Despite the pain of his hip injury, learning the identity of his assailant only steeled his resolve.
Jacob’s audacious demand for a blessing showed he had learned the lesson of the wrestling match well. He finally understood that the blessing he sought had nothing to do with his brother. If God blessed him, he was blessed. And God did bless him by changing his name from Jacob to Israel. The name Jacob (yaʿaqov) means “he surpasses.” Israel (yisraʾel) means “God contends,” though here it’s used as a wordplay meaning “he contends with God.” Jacob’s life no longer revolved around surpassing human rivals like Esau and Laban. He had contended with God himself and won the blessing he so desired.
Peniel
“Please tell me your name,” Jacob said.
“Why are you asking about my name?” Then the man blessed Jacob.
Jacob named the place Peniel because “I saw God face-to-face, but my life was saved!”
The sun was rising as he passed through Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip. To this day the Israelites do not eat the sciatic nerve over the hip socket because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip near the sciatic nerve.
Edited from Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
After receiving his new name, Jacob experienced a moment of doubt about his extraordinary encounter. Had he really wrestled with God? Or had he misunderstood the situation? So he asked for the man’s name. The enigmatic response resembled the answer Yahweh’s messenger gave when Manoah, Samson’s father, asked for his name.17 Hosea 12:3–4 calls Jacob’s opponent both “God” and “an angel/messenger,” which further suggests this was Yahweh’s messenger.18 Though he would not give his name, he blessed Jacob and left.
Any lingering doubt disappeared as Jacob limped across the Jabbok to rejoin his family. His physical disability proved the reality of the encounter. He realized how fortunate he was to survive seeing God face-to-face, so he named the place Peniel (peniʾel), which sounds like the Hebrew phrase pene ʾel (“the face of God”). A later town in the same area was called Penuel.
When God dislocated Jacob’s hip, he touched his thigh near the sciatic nerve. This gave rise to a prohibition against eating the sciatic nerve of any animal. Scripture mentions this tradition only here, but Jews still follow it under kosher law.19
Reunion
When Jacob looked around, he saw Esau heading his way with four hundred men. So Jacob separated the children, along with Leah, Rachel, and their two servants. He lined up the servants with their children first, then Leah with her children, and finally Rachel and Joseph. But Jacob went in front of them, bowing down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
Esau ran to meet and embrace Jacob. Throwing his arms around his neck, he kissed him, and they both wept. Then Esau looked around and saw the women and children. “Who are they?”
“The children God has favored your servant with.”
The servants and their children drew near and bowed down. Then Leah and her children drew near and bowed down. Finally, Joseph and Rachel drew near and bowed down.
Image by John Paul Stanley/YoPlace.com from Free Bible Images, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
As Jacob returned to the camp, he looked up and saw Esau and his four hundred men approaching. The wording of the Hebrew suggests that Esau’s arrival immediately followed Jacob’s encounter with God and that it caught Jacob by surprise.
Jacob quickly prepared his family to meet his brother, lining them up so he could introduce each of his wives with her children. Some scholars believe the chosen order reflected Jacob’s favoritism, putting Rachel and Joseph in the back to give them the best chance to escape.20 If so, it wasn’t a very well-thought-out plan. None of them stood a chance of surviving an attack by four hundred men.21 Had Jacob expected a battle, he would have organized his servants, not his wives and small children.
Despite his dislocated hip, Jacob took the lead in approaching Esau. As he limped and bowed and limped and bowed toward his brother, he was defenseless. Jacob clearly had no intention of fighting Esau. He had prayed and taken decisive action to make peace. Now he placed his life and the lives of his family in God’s hands, trusting the blessing he had just received.
Jacob approached Esau as a servant bowing before his master. But Esau approached Jacob as a brother welcoming home his long-lost twin. He showed no signs of even remembering his past anger. He ran to embrace Jacob, and both brothers wept tears of joy. Then Esau asked to be introduced to Jacob’s family. God had given Jacob peace with his uncle, and now he gave him peace with his brother.22
Blessing
Then Esau asked, “What is the purpose of all those herds I met?”
“To seek my lord’s favor.”
“I already have enough, my brother,” Esau answered. “Keep what’s yours.”
“Please,” replied Jacob, “favor me by taking my gift because I have seen your face—like seeing the face of God—and you have accepted me. Please take my blessing brought to you because God has favored me and I have more than enough!” Because Jacob persisted, Esau took it.
Image by Andy Berry from Creation Swap
After the formal introduction of Jacob’s family, Esau asked about all the animals Jacob’s servants had brought him. Jacob explained he had sent them as a gift to win Esau’s favor. Though Esau initially refused the gift, Jacob insisted he take it as a sign of his favor. Jacob even compared his reunion with Esau to his divine encounter at Peniel. He had seen God’s face and survived because God accepted him. Now he saw Esau’s face and survived because Esau accepted him.
Jacob’s insistance that Esau accept his “blessing” served as an act of repentance. Jacob had used deceit to deprive Esau of Isaac’s blessing, but now he wanted to return it.23 He finally understood how the blessing works. Because God had blessed him, Jacob could in turn bless Esau without losing the blessing himself. God’s blessing is not a limited resource we must wrestle away from others. It grows as it’s shared!24
Esau’s Invitation
Then Esau said, “Let’s continue on our way. I’ll travel alongside you.”
“My lord knows the children are frail and I must care for the nursing flocks and herds,” Jacob replied. “If they are driven too hard for one day, the entire flock will die. Please, my lord, go on ahead of your servant. I must travel slowly, at the pace of the livestock and the pace of the children, until I arrive where my lord is in Seir.”
“Then please allow me to leave some of my people with you.”
“What for?” Jacob responded. “Let my lord show me his favor.”
So Esau left that day to return to Seir.
Image by Kate Macate from Unsplash
When Jacob returned from Harran, Esau had left Isaac’s camp to stay in Seir, a mountainous region between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. Genesis 36:6–8 suggests Esau didn’t settle in Seir until after Jacob’s return, so at this time he may have used the area for summer grazing.25 He wanted Jacob to join him there and offered to accompany him.
Jacob rejected Esau’s offer by pointing out that he had to travel slowly because of his children and the nursing young among his livestock. From a Western perspective, he seems to revert to his former deceptive self, promising to eventually join Esau in Seir without any intention of doing so. Yet people in many cultures consider it rude to directly refuse such an invitation.26 By leaving open the possibility he might accept the invitation later, Jacob refused in a way considered polite in his culture.
When Esau left, he likely understood Jacob didn’t intend to follow. Indeed, had he done so, Jacob would have disobeyed God. God told him to return to his homeland, Canaan.27 He couldn’t go to Seir, which lay outside the land promised to Abraham.
Succoth and Shechem
But Jacob traveled to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock. That’s why he named the place Succoth.
Later, Jacob arrived safely in the town of Shechem in the land of Canaan. After he returned from Paddan Aram, he camped near the city. He bought the part of the field where he set up his camp for one hundred pieces of silver from the people of Hamor, the father of Shechem. He set up an altar there and called it El Elohe Israel.
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Having made peace with Esau, Jacob could safely cross the Jordan into Canaan. Yet for some reason, he waited. He stayed on the east side of the Jordan long enough to build a house and shelters for his livestock, suggesting he spent at least one winter there. He named the place Succoth, which means “temporary shelter.” This area later belonged to the Transjordanian tribe of Gad.28
When Jacob did return to Canaan, he moved to the town of Shechem. At Shechem, God had first promised to give Canaan to Abraham’s offspring. In response, Abraham built his first altar to Yahweh.29 Jacob imitated his grandfather by also building his first altar there. He named it El Elohe Israel (ʾel ʾelohe yisraʾel), which means “God is the God of Israel.” In this way, Jacob acknowledged that God had kept his promise to bring him safely back to his homeland.30
Jacob spent several years at Succoth and Shechem. When he left Harran, his children were all under the age of thirteen, and Dinah was no older than six.31 Yet in the next chapter, they’re all grown up. The move to Shechem begins the transition to the next part of the story, foreshadowed by the introduction of Hamor and his son, also named Shechem.32 Scripture never explains why Jacob settled there instead of going to Bethel to fulfill his vow.33 But whatever the reason, the delay would prove disastrous.
- Genesis 27:41–45; see Flee.
- See Stairway to Heaven.
- Kempf and Kuhn, Notes on Genesis 25:19–50:26, Gen. 32:2a.
- Genesis 28:15.
- Genesis 31:3, 13.
- See Jacob’s Vow.
- See Binding Isaac.
- Exodus 14:13–16; Joshua 7:6–11.
- See Playing Esau.
- See Esau’s Plea.
- This river in modern-day Jordan is now called the Zarqa (or Zerqa). Kidner, Genesis, 181; Ross, “Genesis,” 190.
- The statement that Jacob “took” his family is often misunderstood to mean Jacob crossed with the first group. But the context doesn't allow that interpretation. Rather, this is just an introductory summary, a common feature of Hebrew narrative that functions like a heading. The actual crossing began when Jacob “sent” his family across.
- See Genesis 32:30; Hosea 12:3.
- Kidner, Genesis, 180.
- See Two Nations.
- Exodus 33:18–23; see Waiting for God.
- Judges 13:17–18.
- See Yahweh’s Messenger.
- My Jewish Learning, “What Makes Meat Kosher (or Not),” accessed November 29, 2022, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/kosher-meat/.
- Ross, “Genesis,” 193–194; Wenham, Genesis 16–50, 298.
- Reyburn and Fry, Handbook on Genesis, 772.
- See Terms of the Covenant.
- See Playing Esau.
- See Why Israel?
- Shepherds frequently moved around during the year seeking pasture for their flocks. See Genesis 37:12–17.
- Kempf and Kuhn, Notes on Genesis 25:19–50:26, Gen. 33:14.
- Genesis 31:3.
- Joshua 13:8, 24–27.
- Genesis 12:6–7.
- Genesis 28:15.
- Genesis 30:20–21; 31:41.
- See Foreshadowing.
- Genesis 28:20–22.